Some say if a person loves his or her job, that person will never work a day in his or her entire life. For Dr. Dale Simmons, this statement could not be more relevant.

In July, Simmons will have been teaching and been a part of the Oregon State community for 50 straight years. He is one of two of the longest working professors at Oregon State. Simmons started teaching at OSU in the fall of 1959 when he was appointed assistant professor of psychology and counselor in the counseling and testing center.

"I accepted the original appointment because I needed a job near the [University of Oregon] so that I could complete my Ph.D. degree," Simmons said. "I had never contemplated teaching as a career, but found that teaching was enjoyable."

Simmons also noted that at the time of his appointment, the school was called Oregon State College and there were about 4,500 students.

In the early 1960s, Simmons dropped from Oregon State to take a job as the director of the Lincoln County Mental Health Clinic in Newport, however, he still had his residence here in Corvallis. After a year, he returned to Oregon State.

"What I discovered from all of this was that I really had an extremely hard time sitting in an office [for] eight hours a day," Simmons said. "So when OSU contacted me to see if I would come back to teaching, I accepted gladly. It was one of the best decisions I ever made because the position gave me so much more movement and I have loved my relationships with students, faculty, administrators, 'techies' and all the other folks at the University."

Simmons retired in 1994 and continued to teach correspondence courses for the extension division which then later turned to online web courses and now Ecampus. He reported that when the school incorporated Ecampus back onto campus, his status was demoted and now he is currently a web course instructor.

Along with Robert Shultz, professor of civil and construction engineering, Simmons was recently acknowledged at the 25-year club banquet for his long devotion to Oregon State.